Serendipity & the Serpent

Open Arms

You walked into the large, intimidating, glass doors to the country club. Your mother was close behind.

Immediately, you saw the swarm of glitz and glitter. Glamour poured out through the crowd of waiting guests. You immediately saw a few friends from school with their families. Now it had all made sense why Ali told everyone that your birthday was approaching.

But in the sea of people, your eyes landed on Johnny's.

He was there, he was really there. Despite everything that had happened in the past few days, he still showed up.

Tonight was your chance to tell him those three, daunting words.

As you walked through the crowd, you accepted showers of compliments and gifts. Many people wished you a happy birthday, some that you hadn't even recognized. A lot of guests were classmates at school, which made the random birthday shouts in the hallway a lot more understandable.

See? You're doing fine. These people are sweet and kind. You were worried for nothing.

Ali practically ran to your side and leapt on you. As she wrapped her arms around your neck in a hug, she let out a giggle.

"I've been waiting for this moment for a very long time!"

You chuckled in her grip. "I thought you had only been planning this for two weeks?"

"You don't think this party was the only thing I had planned, did you?"

Your face scrunched up in concern and confusion. "What did you do?"

She giggled once more, "you'll see."

Her gaze quickly fluttered behind you before she skipped off in another direction. The motion was small, but enough to leave you questioning. As she went, you turned to see what exactly she had looked at.

Or in this case, who she was looking at.

Johnny flashed you the biggest smile as he lowered himself into his chair. As a defense mechanism, you rolled your eyes. You felt stupid doing so, but you couldn't let him get you to smile so easily. What fun is that when you could just... play the game?

But was it just the game? Or were your nerves overwhelming you again?

Bombarded with sudden anxiety, you made your way over to the table your mother had seated herself at. You pulled out a chair next to her, facing away from Johnny, and made yourself comfortable. You couldn't bring yourself to look at him with your stomach tied up in knots.

"Hey doll," your mom pulled you in for a side hug, "having a good ol' time?"

"It's great, ma. Thank you!"

"Oh don't thank me," she swatted your arm, "thank Ali and Johnny."

You swallowed. "Ali... and... and- Johnny?"

Johnny took part in this?

"Yup," your mother smiled wide, "he came to the record shop quite a few times these past two weeks. Of course he was skipping school, which you my love, shouldn't do. But it was so sweet I wanted to cry! Oh honey, there were so many times where I wanted to tell you."

Without thinking, your lips curled up into a smile and you risked a peak at Johnny.

His eyes were narrowed into slits in a taunting manner. He easily caught onto your previous little eye roll game and decided to play along. His mannerisms read strictly game time as he stood to his feet and walked past you. Never once did he take his eyes off of you, and he even let his hand brush across your shoulder as he went.